10 held from ‘militant den’
Counter-terrorism police yesterday arrested 10 people – six women and four men – in a raid on a suspected militant hideout in Moulvibazar.
The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police conducted the special drive, codenamed Operation Hill Sight, in a remote hilly region of the district's Kulaura area.
The new outfit – Imam Imam Mahmuder Kafela – follows the ideology of Ghazwa-e-Hind (Battle of India), and aims to establish control in the Indian subcontinent, CTTC chief Md Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star after the raid that ended around 10:30am.
Ghazwa-e-Hind refers to the Hadith that predicts the great battle for India, according to Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think-tank.
The arrestees include Shariful Islam, 40, Amina Begum, 40, Habiba Binte Shafiqul, 20, from Satkhira; Hafiz Ullah, 25, from Kishoreganj; Khairul Islam, 22, from Narayanganj; Rafiul Islam, 22, from Sirajganj; Shapla Begum, 22, from Pabna; Maisha Islam, 20, from Natore; and Sanjida Khatun, 18, from Bogra.
They also had three children with them, said Asaduzzaman, adding that the raid lasted about four and a half hours from around 6:00am.
Police recovered around 3kgs of explosives, 50 detonators, combat boots, boxing bags, several sacks of jihadi books and Tk 3.61 lakh in cash from their houses, he added.
Investigators said the detonators are neither handmade nor homemade.
"We suspect the detonators were illegally smuggled into the country," said a top CTTC official, requesting anonymity.
Investigators suspect the group has adopted a new operational and recruitment model. This "new method" entails persuading an entire family, rather than a lone wolf, to abandon their homes and join the militants on "hijrat".
This way, they can avoid suspicion as no one from their family files any complaint about their going missing.
"Tracing this outfit took us time, as no one from these families were left behind to file a complaint," said Asaduzzaman.
He added that they arrested a man in Dhaka a while ago when he was planning to take his family to the Moulvibazar den. "This led us to the hideout."
This strategic shift indicates that militant outfits are adapting to new situations to remain operational, evading the radar of law enforcers, the CTTC chief added.
In the past, a single individual would leave home to join militant outfits. Subsequently, their family members would file a missing report, alerting the law enforcers.
Locals around the Moulvibazar "hideout" said some of the arrestees bought a piece of land from a local, Rafiq Mia, and built several houses about a year ago.
"We noticed the presence of women and children only a few months ago," said Babul Mia, a resident of Jogitila area of Tatuli.
Zoynal Mia, also from the area, said the arrestees had earlier told them that they lost their homes to river erosion.
"They would not talk much with the locals. But they told us that more of their relatives would soon join them," he told The Daily Star.
According to Asaduzzaman, the CTTC chief, the suspects invited some other members of the outfit to join them from different parts of the country.
"We have the name of the key person of this outfit. The outfit has quite a few operatives and we are trying to nab them," he said.
The country saw a major surge in militant activities and drives in militant hideouts in 2016-2017. Law enforcers conducted at least 23 major anti-militancy drives across the country that left around 69 militants killed in those two years.
However, there has not been any major militant activity or drive in militant hideouts for the last couple of years, except for some activities by Jama'atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya. The government banned this group on August 9 this year.
Officials involved in anti-terrorism activities had been claiming that militant outfits were under control, although they were on alert.
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